Cabinet to decide on major school sports and leisure facilities

CREATING state-of-the-art leisure provision at the new Haverfordwest High VC School site will be discussed by Pembrokeshire County Council’s Cabinet next week.

Cllr Paul Miller, Cabinet Member for Economic Development, Leisure, Culture and Tourism has been working with the school and leisure team on the proposals and welcomed the report to cabinet.

He said: “Following the Council’s decision to develop the new Haverfordwest school at the site in Prendergast, we’ve been reviewing the leisure facility options.

“The leisure strategy the team developed and I presented in 2018 set out ambitions to invest substantially in leisure facilities across Pembrokeshire and on Monday I’ll be asking colleagues to support the creation of a first-class sport and leisure campus as part of the school proposals.

“The proposals I’m putting forward are for a £4.6m investment to create Pembrokeshire’s first eight court sports hall, allowing the space for multiple activities to take place side by side, together with a full size rugby specific 3G pitch, to complement the football specific 3G already developed at the neighbouring Caer Elin.

“These facilities will sit alongside the existing artificial pitch, the six tennis courts and six lane running track and athletics facility, all of which will be retained, creating an amazing sport and leisure campus facility for the whole county.”

The report to members details the scale of the work involved, including the demolition of the existing Prendergast (Former Sir Thomas Picton School) Leisure Centre.

The cost of the work is estimated at £4.6m to be completed in a two phase strategy.

Demolition of the Prendergast Leisure Centre is planned for July 2021 with the build of the new leisure provision set to begin in January 2022 for an August 2022 completion.

The report states that work on the main school is due to begin in October this year for an August 2022 completion.